I'm god damn terrified for my mom and her husband. A month before my wife and I went on our twentieth anniversary trip she texted me at 5am begging to borrow 5k. My wife and I are working class. We aren't well off with a small emergency fund. I sold a collection I've had for 20+ years to fund our trip. My mother knew this
Needless to say I was taken aback. I kept asking her what the money was for, she tried dancing around it. "I was stupid", "Your mother made a stupid mistake". Finally she admitted she went with some friends to the casino, pulled 5k out of my stepfathers account and lost it all.
She claims this is the first time she's ever done something like this and she was never going to gamble or step foot in there again. Luckily I had been reading about the rise in problem gambling so I knew not to lend her any money. That night my wife and I met with my sister and her husband to pool our minds together. She had reached out to them as well.
Things started to click into place
The owner of the company she worked for passed away, she was close to the family and ended up handling the estate. The entire time she talked about how much work she was doing and how the widow (very well off) was going to give her a percentage of the estate. She made it sound like she was due to get around 150k-200k. Summer rolls around, we were all at a family barbecue and someone asked her how that ended up working out. She claimed she was stiffed and given nothing.
My grandfather and grandmother both had property and estates split between my mom and her siblings. the three of them got around 200k each I believe.
She had a side business that was doing really well, she sold off the equipment she used for it and doesn't do it anymore.
My child had a big surgery 6 weeks ago. As part of the recovery they were prescribed hydromorphone for the pain (they're 19) if they needed it. They did fine with just tylenol and didn't end up taking it. She called me randomly asking for the prescription one morning a week ago because she was going to be at a conference that weekend and on her feet. She told me it was because she needed something for the pain. We immediately took the pills to the pharmacy to be disposed of and informed her of such.
Okay, writing this all out I feel like an idiot for not picking up on it sooner. It's got to be bad right? I offered to take her to the casino and get her banned when she asked me for money. She agreed but kept flaking. Always an excuse why she couldn't go that day. I looked up gambling anonymous meetings for her and sent her them. She didn't go. My therapist tells me there's nothing I can do, and logically I know there's nothing I can do. I guess I'm just looking for confirmation. It sounds like a gambling addiction right? If you all were in my shoes, what would you do?